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

even if he had to abuse himself.” 164 However, the passage may also mean the attempt
was not serious if Oswald could look back on it with some humor.
Holloway described Marina as a rebel, and that she may have been drawn to a
foreigner but would grow disenchanted with Oswald’s lies. In fact, Holloway
emphasized Oswald’s deceptiveness and lying to manipulate others. The author also
dismissed any possibility that Oswald was a intelligence agent even when his writings
may indicate that. For example, Oswald wrote to John Connally, who he thought was
still the Secretary of the Navy, to protest the changing of honorable discharge from the
Marines to undesirable discharge (not the even more serious dishonorable discharge).
Oswald wrote that he always “had the full sanction of the U.S. Embassy, Moscow, USSR
and hence the U.S. government” during his time in the Soviet Union. 165
Holloway assumed this was a bold-faced lie, but perhaps Oswald was hinting at
some official sanction for his defection. Also, in a letter to his brother Robert, Oswald
mentioned the release of the U-2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union, Francis Gary
Powers. Oswald wrote that Powers “seemed to be a nice, bright, American-type fellow
when I saw him in Moscow.” 166 The problem is that Oswald was not in Moscow when
Powers was brought there and put on trial, and there is no known incident in which
Oswald could have seen Powers in person. Holloway assumed Oswald made a mistake:
perhaps Oswald saw Powers on television. Conspiracy theorists would allege that
perhaps the KGB used Oswald in some way to assess Powers after the U-2 incident.
164 Holloway, 19.
165 Holloway, 86.
166 Holloway, 88.
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