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emotionally, altogether too much to bear” for Oswald when given the opportunity by fate
to carry out the assassination. 190
McMillan told the author of this dissertation that she respected the Oswalds and
sought to give Lee “his humanity.” She rejected the idea that Oswald was a “nut,” but
that he “displaced many of his conflicts…onto the political sphere and that he believed
himself to be acting for ideological reasons.” She said she still believes Oswald was the
lone assassin and had no ties to U.S. or Soviet intelligence. McMillan said the Soviets
did not trust ideological defectors and saw him as being “emotionally and politically unfit
to be an agent.” 191
There are some conspiracy theories about McMillan herself: that she has
connections to the CIA and was acting on its behalf either in interviewing Oswald in
Moscow or in collaborating with Marina in writing a book that upheld the Warren
Commission’s findings. McMillan declared “I am not and never have been an agent of
anybody and am exactly what I purported to be.” McMillan said she is no longer in touch
with Marina and that she came under the influence of conspiracy theorists in Dallas who
persuaded her Lee was a patsy. Marina’s more recent statements are described in
Chapter 7.
In her book, McMillan described an incident several weeks before the
assassination, when Oswald, with Marina at his side, watched two assassination-related
movies, “Suddenly” and “We Were Strangers.” Marina paid little attention to the
190
McMillan, 467.
191
Priscilla Johnson McMillan, emails to author, December 21 and December 30, 2010.
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