Warren Commission (11 of 26): Hearings Vol. XI (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (11 of 26): Hearings Vol. XI (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Mr. THORNLEY. I didn't think about that enough to classify it. I just
thought, "something is wrong with him, maybe something is bugging him
today, maybe he is crazy, I don't know what," but I just wasn't at that
moment--it wasn't that important to me, I didn't feel much better than
he did that morning, I am sure, so I just shrugged it off.
Later, I did reflect on it, and that, combined with his general
habits in relation to his superiors, and to the other men in the
outfit, caused me to decide that he had a definite tendency toward
irrationality at times, an emotional instability. Once again right
away, I didn't know exactly what was the cause of this. A couple of
years later I had good reason to think about it some more, at which
time I noticed----
Mr. JENNER. Now when please? Before the assassination?
Mr. THORNLEY. Yes, while working on my book, "The Idle Warriors."
Mr. JENNER. About when was this?
Mr. THORNLEY. From the time he went to the Soviet Union until February
of 1962.
Mr. JENNER. You learned that he had gone to the Soviet Union?
Mr. THORNLEY. Yes; I was stationed at his former outfit, Marine Air
Control Squadron 1, at the time he went to the Soviet Union.
Mr. JENNER. Where were you then stationed?
Mr. THORNLEY. That is where I was at the time.
Mr. JENNER. What country?
Mr. THORNLEY. At Atsugi, Japan.
Mr. JENNER. I see. And you learned about it through what source?
Mr. THORNLEY. The Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper in the
Far East. It was on page 3, I believe, a little article about Lee
Harvey Oswald having appeared in the American Embassy in Moscow,
having plopped down his passport and requested Soviet citizenship. My
first reaction was, "Good Lord, what is going on here?" And afterward,
I, of course--it began to occur to me, his interest in communism,
and I started kicking myself, thinking, well, you know, just for so
misjudging a person. I just----
Mr. JENNER. Misjudging? What respect, please?
Mr. THORNLEY. As far as his sincerity went. I did not ever think he was
so interested in communism to go to all the trouble to go to the Soviet
Union and certainly to jeopardize his citizenship, and so forth. This
was a great surprise to me. And right away I began to try to figure out
the mechanism of his thinking.
Mr. JENNER. I see. Keep going and tell me what your rationalization and
thinking was at that time.
Mr. THORNLEY. And what caused him to do this. This gets us back to the
emotional instability and why did it occur. I do believe, to begin
with, Oswald, how long ago he had acquired the idea I don't know, but I
think in his mind it was almost a certainty that the world would end up
under a totalitarian government or under totalitarian governments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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