[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

left-wing beliefs very seriously. In her words, “A Marxist killing a liberal president made
no sense,” and Oswald without a motive made the assassination “an event without
meaning.” 220 While she acknowledged Oswald’s troubled upbringing and personal life,
his bitterness and arrogance, Davison contended that “Virtually everyone who knew Lee
Oswald thought he was intelligent, rational, and dedicated to his brand of left-wing
politics.” 221 In this rendering, Oswald’s interest in Communism began at an early age
when he was handed a leaflet in New York City about the Rosenberg espionage case. He
avidly read the pamphlet and books about Marxism. Oswald’s later defection to the
Soviet Union, in Davison’s view, was a logical extension of his beliefs, even though he
became disillusioned with the Soviet brand of Communism.
After his return to the United States with his new wife Marina and baby in tow,
Oswald became more and more interested in Cuba and its charismatic leader Fidel
Castro. Oswald staged demonstrations first in Dallas and then in New Orleans in behalf
of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. “There’s little doubt,” Davison argued, “that
Oswald’s pro-Castro activities were designed to help him get into Cuba and be warmly
received once he got there.” 222 So far, there is not much in Davison’s account from the
Warren Commission findings, but she added new twists to anti-Castro activist Sylvia
Odio’s alleged encounter with Oswald before the assassination and Oswald’s motive for
killing Kennedy.
220
Jean Davison, Oswald’s Game, (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1983), 14-15.
221
Davison, 20.
222
Davison, 141.
104