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

CHAPTER 2: OSWALD THE NUT
The Warren Commission’s defenders have largely accepted the “lone-nut” thesis
of the assassination, while searching for a better understanding of the alleged assassin,
Lee Harvey Oswald, and his possible motive for killing John F. Kennedy. The defenders
have included Warren Commission participants and those with first-hand knowledge of
Oswald, former law enforcement personnel, and independent researchers. These authors
see Oswald as a Marxist, a social outcast, and a man prone to violence, and do not find
any potential conspirators among Oswald’s associates, nor did they believe Oswald had
connections to the mob, U.S. or Soviet intelligence, or anti-Castro Cubans.
The Commission’s defenders struggled to convince Americans of the “lone nut”
thesis, and when faced with widespread skepticism, some blamed assassination
conspiracy theorists for manipulating a gullible public. However, in their attempt to
explain who Lee Harvey Oswald was, the defenders of the Warren Commission offered
almost as many interpretations of what motivated the alleged assassin as there are
conspiracy theories. The post-modern man Oswald remains an enigmatic figure in
American culture, open to a variety of interpretations.
Some researchers have emphasized Oswald’s personal motivations for the
assassination such as his familial troubles, and his alleged mental instability, rather than
his ideological beliefs. These authors emphasized the personal over the political.
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