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
I think he accepted Orwell's premise in this that their was no fighting
it. That sooner or later you were going to have to love Big Brother and
I think this was the central, I think this was the central thing that
disturbed him and caused many of his other reactions.
I think he wanted to be on the winning side for one thing, and,
therefore, the great interest in communism. I think he wanted--I think
he felt he was under a totalitarian system while in the Marine Corps,
and, therefore, the extreme reactions when someone would call him a
Communist. I think he had a persecution complex, and I think he strove
to maintain it. I could not go so far as to say why. Perhaps it was
necessary to his self-esteem in some way. This was and is the general
conclusion I now have as to his general motivations, his overall
motivations, insofar as he has tended to be emotionally unstable.
Mr. JENNER. Do you think he was emotionally unstable?
Mr. THORNLEY. I think so.
Mr. JENNER. That is an opinion you gathered from your association with
him in the Marines.
Mr. THORNLEY. Yes. Primarily once again from that last experience, that
short exchange and just the complete unexpectedness of it. And then, of
course, after that was when I learned some of the other things, such as
the pouring the beer over the staff sergeant's head. These things, I
don't know when I learned them, but I do definitely know I learned them
afterwards because I----
Mr. JENNER. You mean you learned of that incident after you left the
base at El Toro?
Mr. THORNLEY. I believe I learned it over in Japan, as a matter of
fact, I believe soon after I got there somebody mentioned it in some
connection or another, and that was because I remember, yes, I am sure
it happened over there because I remember, then I said, "Oh, he was in
this unit? He was in here in MACS 1?" and somebody said, "Yes." And
that was another connection in my mind as far as Oswald was concerned.
And then when the defection occurred, I therefore felt that I--I had
been thinking about writing a book on the Marine Corps. I had not
decided exactly what it was going to concern, what it was going to be
about as far as plot or theme went, the background would be the Marine
Corps in Japan, because that was the first big, at that time to me,
dramatic experience of my life suitable for a book, worth telling about.
So, when the defection occurred on that same day, I thought, "Well,
this is it. I am in a perfect position to tell how this took place, why
this happened." I was not so interested in explaining Lee Harvey Oswald
to myself or anybody else, as I was in explaining that particular
phenomenon of disillusionment with the United States after serving in
the Marine Corps overseas in a peacetime capacity; thus the title: The
Idle Warriors.
Since Oswald inspired the book, I did base a good deal of it as a
matter of convenience on his personality and on his ideas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account