(Testimony of Kerry Wendell Thornley)
Mr. Thornley.
Everything Oswald has ever done has surprised me.
Mr. Jenner.
Please elaborate on that.
Mr. Thornley.
When I knew him and since I knew him, when I knew him I was surprised when he was offended at my statement about, the coming of the revolution that Saturday morning. I was surprised when I read in the papers overseas that he had gone to the Soviet Union. I was surprised when he came back. And I was entirely caught unaware when it turned out that he was involved in the assassination, to such an extent that for some time afterwards, I thought he was innocent.
Mr. Jenner.
Why were you surprised when he came back and tell us before you do that where were you and how did you find out about it.
Mr. Thornley.
I was in New Orleans. My parents sent me an article from the Los Angeles Times about it. The reason I was surprised at his coming back was as I said before, I just expected that would be the last I would hear of him. I fully expected him to adjust to Soviet life. I thought what he--at that time I thought what he probably lacked in the Marine Corps was any sympathy for the overall purpose of the Marine Corps. Whereas he certainly had sympathy for .the overall purpose of the Soviet Government, so I don't think he would mind the restrictions imposed on him, as he resented them in the Marine Corps.
I did not expect him to become disillusioned, certainly, with the Soviet Union. I am not, of course, sure that he did become disillusioned with it. It just seemed unlike him to come back to this country when he said he would never live in either as a capitalist or as a worker.
Mr. Jenner.
When did he say that?
Mr. Thornley.
He said that at a press conference in Moscow according to the papers.
Mr. Jenner.
This was something you read in the Stars and Stripes?
Mr. Thornley.
I don't know whether I read this in the Stars and Stripes or whether I read this--I certainly read it when he came back from Russia, I remember. It was in the article from the Times my folks sent me. Said when he had left for the Soviet Union he had said such-and-such, quote.
Mr. Jenner.
You said you did not expect him to become disillusioned with Soviet Russia. Was it your impression at any time, take the several stages, that he had a conviction with respect to any form of political philosophy or government?
Mr. Thornley.
Well, he did definitely always before and after have a Marxist bias. From anything that has come to me, that has never--I have never reason--never had reason to doubt that.
Mr. Jenner.
That, you think, was a conviction?
Mr. Thornley.
I think that was an irrevocable conviction, you might say.
Mr. Jenner.
You do not think it was not merely a theoretical concept which he used for argumentation?
Mr. Thornley.
Let me put it this way. I think you could sit down and argue with him for a number of years in a great marathon argument and have piles of facts and I don't think you could have changed his mind on that unless you knew why he believed it in the first place. I certainly don't. I don't think with any kind of formal argument you could have shaken that conviction. And that is why I say irrevocable. It was just--never getting back to looking at things from any other way once he had become a Marxist, whenever that was.
Mr. Jenner.
Was he able to articulate distinctions between Marxism, communism, capitalism, democracy?
Mr. Thornley.
At the time I knew him and argued with him he didn't bother
to articulate distinctions between Marxism and communism. At a latter time I understand he did.
Mr. Jenner.
He attempted to.
Mr. Thornley.
At the time I knew his communism was the modern, living vicar of Marxism, period.
Mr. Jenner.
Were you in New Orleans when he was arrested for distributing Fair Play for Cuba Committee leaflets?
Mr. Thornley.
I arrived in New Orleans in the early part of September. If I was in New Orleans---
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