Why did lee harvey oswald betray the marine corps and his country?

Question

Why did lee harvey oswald betray the marine corps and his country?

Answer 1

It was a long time ago, and the people who know are largely dead and forgotten, but its a good question because it demonstrates the problems of politics and security based on laws such as the "patriot act".

Whether Lee Harvey Oswald had an independent unbalanced mind, or a mind controlled by conspirators, or whether he was just an unlucky Innocent, is probably never going to be known. But the fact is, it was a one in a million chance. With around 250 million adults, that means there are 250 Lee Harvey Oswalds roaming the streets of the USA.

Answer 2

1.) He was a RED

2.) He was a LOONY Tune, Fruit Loops, Crazy, NUTS....

Just so you know, there are crazies in the GENERAL POPULATION and since the Military is a CROSS SECTION of the population, it stands to reason that occasionally a nutcase like Lee Harvey Oswald (USMC), Tim McVeigh (US Army), Damien G. Kawai (USAF) or John Eric Armstrong (US Navy) will appear in the ranks or, as in all but Kawai's case, already have been discharged when they start killing.

Answer 3

Because he felt the Corps and the country betrayed him. He tried to become a Marine at age 14 while living in the Bronx in New York City. The recruiter gave him some printed material and told him to return when he was old enough.

After becoming a Marine he was later given a humanitarian release from active duty through his mother urging officials for it. He still had a Reserve obligation. The Cold War was on. The mobilization regulations for the Marine Corps required every Reservist who intended to leave the limits of the United States to get advanced permission from Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps. It didn't matter if you were just going overseas as a tourist or on business. Advanced permission was required. Oswald didn't do that. He went to the Soviet Union without getting permission. The Marines are quite strict on such matters. So, they began the administrative process of discharging Oswald with an Undesirable Discharge from the Marine Corps Reserve. But, since he was not in the U.S. it was an in absentia discharge which required the approval of the Secretary of the Navy. After that approval was obtained, his discharge papers had to be delivered to him. So, they were sent through the military mail system to the closest U.S. military point to the Soviet Union. Then they had to be transferred to a diplomatic pouch to be delivered to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. The transfer of papers was made and the ranking officer of that U.S. military point signed to so note it.

Oswald was called into the U.S. Embassy. His discharge papers had been sent to the Marine Security Detachment to deliver them to him. But, the Marines considered him to be a dirt bag, so the junior clerk got the job of handing them to Oswald and acknowledging he did so in writing.

Six week prior to the events of November 22, 1964 Oswald tried to kill Retired Lieutenant General Edwin J. Walker of the Army. He's the officer who attested to the transfer of Oswald's discharge papers into a diplomatic pouch at U.S. Force, Berlin. On November 22nd Oswald braced himself against some boxes in the 6th Floor of the Texas Book Depository and fired his rifle in the hopes of killing the Secretary of the Navy who had approved his discharge. That man was now the Governor of Texas, John Connally, who was only wounded. Oswald killed Kennedy in the process.

About a half hour later a Dallas police officer noticed him and yelled at him. He yelled "Hey! Oswald!". That's because the officer had met Oswald on a previous occasion. The officer had served in the Marine Corps and was assigned to the Marine Security Detachment at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. His name was J.D. Tippet and Oswald shot him to death!

So, Oswald went after three people whose names were on pieces of paper in connection with Oswald's bad discharge from the Marine Corps Reserve. He missed one, wounded the second and murdered the third. Kennedy was an innocent bystander and all of the conspiracy theories are mule muffins!

Answer 4

he was a soviet sympathizer... he was for the soviet union

Answer 5

Before everyone gets crazy over the Oswald/Walker/Connally/Tippet connection:

Lee H. Oswald emigrated to the USSR in October 1959, and renounced his citizenship on Oct. 31, 1959, prompting the Marines to downgrade his discharge status to Undesirable. General Edwin A. Walker was commander of the 24th Infantry Division at Augsburg, Germany at the time and was not assigned to US Headquarters in Berlin. John Connally was not Secretary of the Navy until 1961, 2 years after Oswalds discharge. And JD Tippitt was in the US Army, not the Marines. He was a Dallas cop in 1959. Good story, but total baloney.

Answer 6

It wasn't Oswald, it was the CIA.  Didn't you hear about the grassy knoll?

*Snicker*

I'm sure the USMC and the US were the last thing on Oswald's mind.

Answer 7

Because Mr. Oswald was probably paid (or promised) a lot of money and he probably wasn't all there in the head to begin with and that's understating the facts.

Here is a little on his background:

"Lee's youth was characterized by extreme mobility; before the age of 18, Oswald had lived in 22 different homes. Because of the short-lived stay in each location, he had attended 12 different schools, mostly around New Orleans and Dallas, but also in New York City. His mother sent him to an orphanage for 13 months in 1942–1943 when she was too poor to take care of him and his brothers.[4]

As a child, Oswald was withdrawn and temperamental.[5] After moving in with his half-brother (who had joined the US Coast Guard and was stationed in New York City), Oswald and Pic were asked to leave after an incident in which Oswald allegedly threatened Pic's wife with a knife, and struck his mother.[6] [7] Following charges of truancy, he was put under a three week court-ordered stay for psychiatric observation in a facility called Youth House. Dr. Renatus Hartogs described Oswald as having a "Vivid fantasy life, turning around the topics of omnipotence and power, through which he tries to compensate for his present shortcomings and frustrations," and diagnosed the fourteen-year-old Oswald as having a "personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive-aggressive tendencies" and recommended continued psychiatric intervention.[8]"

Hope this helps!