The Ideological Irregularities of Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald became invested in socialist literature at the precocious age of about 14. Despite the long hours he spends at the library reading every variation of Marx and friends, he seems to have difficulty understanding it, as most would without pretty advanced education. Still, he devotes himself pretty thoroughly, actively embracing communist ideology which, in 1950s America, is sort of a strange thing for a teenage boy to do- with both the Cold War and McCarthyism at their heights, there were few ideologies as taboo as communism. It might thus seem that Oswald is extremely devoted to his ideas, given that he’s willing to continue to express them in such an openly hostile environment. He also repeatedly expresses a desire to join a communist cell, which could be read as a fairly strong endorsement of the whole thing.

That’s all well and good, but what really confused me what Oswald’s subsequent decision to join the military. In my opinion, this is really, really not something that a dedicated communist would do. The American military is the definition of an anti-communist force and the emblem of American patriotism, two things that most communists would be set pretty against. Yet Oswald does so with little internal angst, little fanfare, and little criticism. He seems perfectly happy to enlist, despite his previously expressed desires which seem inherently conflictual.

Thus, I believe that Oswald doesn’t actually understand any of what he signs himself up for. He has two goals: to shock people, and to find a community. Oswald enjoys telling people about being a communist because he enjoys the shocked reactions this revelation gains him, and his descriptions of the communist cell he wants to join seems to resemble a fraternal organization- which the military is also oftentimes portrayed as. Oswald doesn’t understand communism, and he doesn’t care to; all he knows is that it’s shocking to people that he is one, and that he might be able to get some friends out of it- friends being something we don’t ever rarely see Oswald having, ever in his life, in a meaningful sense.

This depiction of Oswald is extremely effective at setting him up as the perfect person to assassinate Kennedy. Oswald is willing to go to any length for the sake of his ideology, which he chooses based on what will provide him with the community he never had. Most importantly, he has no problems being blindly and absurdly self-destructive, as long as he believes that what he’s doing will contribute to one of his two goals in the long run- and this makes him the perfect person to pull the trigger.