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

imagination” must have “influenced Lee’s view of the world.” 197 As a child, Lee loved a
radio program “Let’s Pretend” that dramatized fairy tales, and later enjoyed the television
series “I Led Three Lives,” about an FBI informant who posed as a Communist spy.
While some would see these interests as indicating the possibility Lee lived the life of a
double-agent, Robert dismissed his mother’s insistence that Lee was a secret agent of the
United States while he lived in the Soviet Union and afterward. Mrs. Oswald, Robert
wrote, “still sees a spy behind every door and tree.” 198 Robert thought that some
conspiracy theories may be influenced by his mother’s claims. Robert also described his
mother as a temperamental and quarrelsome woman who had “an extraordinary idea of
her ability and importance.” 199 Robert believed that Lee, as a youngest sibling, did not
have the resources to develop his independence from his mother.
While Robert largely accepted the Warren Commission’s findings that Lee was a
loner at odds with society, the elder Oswald provided some observations that run counter
to the official biography. For example, he remembered Lee “as a happy baby and a
happy little boy.” 200 He also did not remember ever seeing Lee read Marxist literature or
express an interest in communism – even though Robert accepted this as true. Robert
stated that “I never suspected, until [Lee] went to Russia, that he had the slightest interest
in Communism.” 201 Instead, Lee showed an interest in the Marines and Robert’s Marine
197
Robert L. Oswald with Myrick and Barbara Land, Lee: A Portrait of Lee Harvey
Oswald by his Brother, (New York: Coward-McCann, 1967), 47.
198
Oswald, 47.
199
Oswald, 23.
200
Oswald, 35.
201
Oswald, 72.
93