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

The Warren Commission's critics drew a different portrait of Oswald, replete with
shadows and doubt about his complicity, his associations, and ultimately the meaning of
his life. The critics described Oswald as a more complex figure – a man of the Cold War
– with ties to organized crime, the U.S. and Soviet intelligence communities, and anti-
Castro Cubans in the United States. Oswald himself told reporters after his arrest that he
was just a “patsy,” a dupe set up to take responsibility for the assassination, but he did not
say who was responsible. For many of these critics, Jack Ruby killed Oswald to silence
him. In some of the works presenting conspiracy theories, Oswald is depicted as more or
less innocent of involvement in the assassination, but in other works, he is still the
malcontented Marxist and pathological misfit described by the Warren Commission.
In American culture, there is not one Oswald but many Oswalds, reflecting
myriad theories about the assassination and different interpretations of the United States
at the height of the Cold War. In these cultural portrayals, Oswald appears as a post-
modern man – how his life is interpreted depends on the perspective of the viewer. There
was, of course, a single, historical figure but basic facts of Oswald’s life are debated
concerning his political beliefs, whether he was a spy, and what his role was in the
assassination.
For the Warren Commission and its defenders, there is the “Lone Nut” Oswald
that emphasizes the alleged assassin’s mental instability and anti-social behavior, or the
“Red Oswald” that stresses his supposed Marxist beliefs. For several novelists, writers,
and filmmakers there is also “the anti-hero Oswald” who is the flawed protagonist of the
assassination tragedy. To the critics of the Warren Commission, there is “Oswald as the
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