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

events leading up to the assassination, Oswald resented the help his mother and the
Russian-expatriate community gave to Marina. He had no lasting friendships, and only
seemed to care about his daughters. His efforts to establish himself as a recognized left-
wing political activist failed, as did his attempt to kill General Walker. “To the American
left,” McMillan wrote, “Lee Oswald did not exist. Yet this was the community he
yearned to belong to and whose hero he hoped to become.” 186
In the end, McMillan’s portrait of Oswald bolstered the image of the alleged
assassin in the Warren Commission report. Here was a true loner whose only meaningful
relationship -- his marriage to Marina -- was a failure. McMillan also dismissed the
possibility of Oswald as an intelligence agent and or a conspirator: “I have often asked
Marina whether Lee might have been capable of joining with an accomplice to kill the
President. Never, she says. Lee was too secretive ever to have told anyone his plans.
Nor could he have acted in concert, accepted orders, or obeyed any plan by anybody
else.” 187 Years later, Marina would change her view of whether her late husband was a
patsy, but with this author, she hewed to the official line.
Marina provided details of her love life with Oswald, including the fact that she
had cheated on him in Minsk while he was away in Moscow seeking approval to return to
the United States. She gave somewhat mixed opinions on Oswald’s love-making.
According to Marina, Oswald “ejaculated too soon, before Marina was ready. It made
her so furious that at times she could have hit him.” “As time went on,” McMillan
186 McMillan, 365.
187 McMillan, 453.
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