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

attempt. They touted the party line that Oswald claimed to be an ideological defector but
he was of no use to Soviet intelligence. The narrator said that in Minsk, Oswald “had the
chance to become what he had always wanted to be, a model young Marxist.” 742
Frontline also interviewed some of Oswald’s friends in Minsk, including Ernst
Titovets. Titovets made recordings of Oswald speaking made-up dialogue in English to
help the Soviet university student learn the language. The program played an excerpt in
which Oswald played the role of a mass murderer who cut the throat of a young girl
“from ear to ear” and guns down eight men in the Bowery. Oswald said “It was very –
very famous. All the newspapers carried the story.” 743 The program immediately cuts to
the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, a not very subtle connection between Oswald’s
murderous musings and his alleged victim.
The program said that Oswald eventually soured on the Soviet Union, and
returned to the United States with his pretty young wife Marina and a baby daughter.
Frontline explored the possibility that the CIA debriefed Oswald upon his return. Former
CIA director Richard Helms said he did not know of any contact between the agency and
the former defector. However, a former CIA officer, Donald Deneselya, claimed that he
saw “a debriefing report” about a Marine re-defector who had worked at a Minsk radio
plant, indicating it was Oswald. 744 The program did not consider the possibility that
Oswald was a false defector on behalf of U.S. intelligence.
742 Frontline transcript, 10.
743 Frontline transcript, 12.
744 Frontline transcript, 14.
328