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

would make other Marines laugh with his comparisons of the Corps and a Communist
society: “In a group, Lee was a loud and boisterous person, making jokes or arguing the
case for Communism, or both, without reserve.” Individually, however, Oswald was
“shy and reserved.” 325 Thornley and Oswald’s friendship broke up over a curious
incident involving a reference to 1984. After Oswald made one of his frequent
complaints about the Marines, Thornley replied “Well, comes the revolution you will
change all that.” Oswald, according to the author, took on an expression of “pained
surprise and shouted, his voice cracking, ‘Not you, too, Thornley!’” 326
The two never spoke again. Thornley would later tell the Warren Commission
that he believed Oswald wanted to be on the right side of history, and that his belief in
Communism was calculated to put him on the winning side, as he saw it. To question his
sincerity as a revolutionary, in this interpretation, was a betrayal. Thornley opined that
Oswald “looked upon history as God. He looked upon the eyes of future people as some
kind of tribunal, and he wanted to be on the winning side so that ten thousand years from
now people would look in the history books and say, ‘Well, this man was ahead of his
time.’” 327
Thornley’s thoughts about Oswald would clearly influence the Warren
Commission’s interpretation of Oswald and this alleged cluster of motivations, including
325 Thornley, 32.
326 Thornley, 33.
327 Thornley, 108.
147